dana820.blogspot.com

Ate my fair share of homemade cookies and brownies, pastas, soups, ham, and chicken roast this past week. Looking forward to New Year's. Apart from liking the slight drop in temp, there's nothing much to say except that my second year of blogging is almost at its end, and hopefully, the third year will be inspired so there'll be more to tell! dinner this evening

Nice and cool tonight. Shame it's spoiled by bites... mosquitoes attack and I'm not wearing pajamas. And no, I don't own pajamas. People bite too. And it only takes one to ruin a happy mood. What a Scrooge! Dear Santa, can I have thick skin?

Frequent network timeouts messed up how fast I worked, was causing a headache - big time! It started last week and I did not want to bear it anymore! Finally decided to tweak router settings in hopes that the problem is stemming from there. I took a screen shot of the original mtu setting - for future reference - and went with lowering its value. After a few ping tests, I put in the value that's slightly higher (the amount plus 28, in fact) of what did not show up as fragmented. After restarting the machine, I braced myself. Decided to cool down so I left, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and came back. It's been over an hour since the "restart" and so far, so good. A couple of network timeouts on mturk but refreshing quickly fixed it. So it isn't totally fixed but it's drastically minimized and refreshing works fast. Unfortunately, some damage has been done since time-constrained hits on mturk that I've accepted were rendered "abandoned" becaus...

Our town is bustling - and cramped. But for some reason, a decent computer shop is nowhere to be found. Somebody would have to go to the mall for good office equipment and supplies. Since that is something I cannot do without proper arrangements and asking for favors isn't something I particularly enjoy, I try to shop online. But looking for good shops is a chore 'cause I haven't seen any Philippine online store that has a good-quality, well-stocked inventory - to date. This item, I bought at PC Bodega, shipped yesterday and arrived this morning. Their website still needs some work so I had to make the order by calling them. After exchanging emails and text messages with a salesperson (who was very nice and helpful), I finally paid for it by depositing the money in one of their banks which happens to have a branch nearby. I feel cheated by the amount they charged me for shipping but I figure it would not have been such a loss if I ordered more than one little thing. Unfortu...

My darling nieces' Christmas gift is on its way! I think it's uncanny that it's easy and convenient for me to give my darlings gifts -- just because they're living in a country where online shopping and shipping is a breeze. It is fantastic and sad that my present circumstances allow me this, which otherwise, I believe, would not be so easy if they were here. But I wish they were here because I miss them, but it's unlikely that I'd be able to do what I want for them if they were.

Some work that I do call for complete silence for me to function. No music, door shut to keep the outside noises out. There's a foresight of boredom prior to starting them that, more often than not, has been proven wrong when I get into it. I could call it refreshing - discovering that you don't get bored with what you're doing like you anticipated you would be. Still, the brewing idea of boredom still come up - even though I know that I won't really be bored - making it tasking to begin. It's just a little cuckoo, I think.

Where's the "yum", Yumpanada? Your empanadas are closer to a sweet dessert than a savory snack. The crust is neither flaky nor crispy - it's sweet and greasy, and the shell reminds me of pandesal or tasty bread. Should I even call what you serve "empanada"? Yours are like compressed, fried siopao ! Sadly, they're not very good. Your small empanadas are just OK, I suppose. But I know to keep away from the big ones. This pictured Yumpanada empanada was from a kiosk at our plaza. I think I read a newspaper naming it one of the best, cheap snacks on-the-go and that there are kiosks of it everywhere. I seriously disagree with it being "one of the best" but it is certainly cheap!

Colloquial speech aside, I'd rather be eager than anxious. Sadly, tonight, I'm suffering the latter. I set myself up for something that, I assume, will come tomorrow. I want to sleep right away when I lie down and not think about this "something" that's out of my hands - until it comes, I think, tomorrow. But what if it doesn't come tomorrow? The thought of that is making me more anxious. My brilliant idea at the moment is to remember how "Kung Fu Panda" made me laugh yesterday or what I read earlier that was so funny! Alright, here it is, and I'll paraphrase: A woman was teaching her son how to cross the street. She held his hand, looked both ways, and asked, "OK, what is the first rule?" Her son replied, "We do not talk about fight club?"

Been streaming "In Between Moments" on grooveshark these past few weeks. It's a Better than Ezra iTunes-only bonus track on their latest record. Seriously, on the first listen, I thought, WTH?!? BTE came up with this?!? They did. It was super soft, so light that it was tinkling (if that makes sense), and on the brink of sounding boy-band-ish. Was expecting something crazy and playful towards the end like they did in the amazing "Rosealia" but no, no playful ending here. It was straight up serious. I laughed so hard. It was a mix of disbelief, shock and amusement. It was like that for a while and it was very fun - laughing so hard. But I got to stop laughing at it lately 'cause the novelty and newness is gone (a natural result of overplaying, I suppose). Yes, I listened to it many times - still do when I want to. Without a doubt, listening to it is... A guilty pleasure.

French toast, pancakes, cereal - breakfast food. Here, they're midafternoon snacks. I prefer savory over sweet for breakfast (or in my case, brunch - my first meal of the day) anyway. Take today's brunch... Tomato slices, tocino , last night's left-over pork adobo , and fried rice. Nom, nom, nom. I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortably closed in in my little work area here. Things are starting to pile up so we'll be putting things back the way they were soon... but not this machine, no. I like it where it is.

For lack of a better title, I "thought" I'd be clever which is (obviously) going to lead to unnecessarily explaining myself but stopping since this has nothing to do with introspection but more about how grateful I am with how wonderfully thoughtful people can be. And yes, it has something to do with this plate of "spaghetti", naturally. Thoughtful guests brought spaghetti over last night 'cause they just came from a children's birthday party. I must say, "Thanks!" and "Nom, nom, nom!" Thoughtful people are the best!

... temporarily. My glasses have irritated the bridge of my nose - again. I'm back to wearing contact lenses for the meantime till the redness disappears. I have to put my face close to the monitor now 'cause the lenses don't correct my astigmatism, sadly. Woes of the poor-sighted. Obviously, I've nothing interesting to say. Well, I will mention how the weather is today (dull much?) and it is very warm.

Holy signal, Batman! There it is! Lost Pldt dsl earlier so I tried my wireless modem again (globe tattoo). Since we moved furniture around a few days ago, the computer is in a different spot - not so far from where it was before but I thought I'd give this backup another try. Hallelujah! It detected the gprs signal at full bar initially which was still sucky in terms of speed. So I disconnected, changed network preferences to "wcdma only" and voila! It worked and caught the better signal! It's not as fast as our dsl but its speed was tolerable. I am sure it would've been faster if it caught bars of the hsdpa/wcdma but what the heck -- it's not useless anymore! Thank goodness our dsl came back after a half an hour since I had a lot to do. Nice to know that my backup's useful now, for peace of mind and all that. Now, what about when electricity's out? The solution's obvious but impractical as of now. Oh well, will deal with that when I ...

These bloomed overnight. Lovely to see. Happy Sunday!

Today's brunch: garlic fried rice, tocino, and itlog na maalat with tomatoes. For some reason, looking at this picture still whets my appetite. Maybe because the combination was really yummy. It was nice to see kids get all excited for trick or treating last Saturday. Seeing them in costume, toting their plastic pumpkin buckets, parents with fancy cameras leading them from house to house, and seeing a house with a life-size "white lady" with its own spotlight to boot! Now, this wasn't in my neighborhood, it was at the one over. Since we lost power on Halloween and me, on a deadline to submit a transcript, I headed over to a friend's house who graciously let me work there for a few hours. We drove through "that" subdivision so I got to see the wonderful muss of decorated houses and trick or treaters. And it was kind of poetic too that the neighborhood didn't have power either and since it was dusk, it added to that Halloween mood. Electricity at our ...

... on an insurance form: Signature Over Printer Name OK, not as funny as if I had put up a picture instead but seriously, made me wonder if it was a fake. But it wasn't so... that's embarrassing (for them). Maybe they knew about it but it would take a board ruling to correct that "official" form so they decided to save thousands of pesos and keep that one with its "printer" flub -- just a thought.

How sad is this? Needless to say, my backup is a sad excuse for a backup. Really, those kbps transfer speeds that you see there, most of the 51 minutes in, they were zero. And I waited (patiently, I might add) for any activity to take a picture which horribly showed a fraction kb per second - not even KB per second! I'm not going to state more of what's obvious, looking at those stats, but I am somewhat relieved to discover that I do not have a faulty device. This is the second time that I've tried this backup wireless modem that I bought weeks ago (globe tattoo). Both times, it was directly plugged in to the pc since I still don't have a usb extension cable. Back then, I wasn't able to get connected. This time, it did catch the lousy gprs one (with hardly any bars - actually, no bars at all) and this was in the middle of the night, at a half past 3 to be exact. Given the circumstances, nothing was achieved online with this product. Until I can get a cable and...

"If you've ever had to double click the Windows system tray clock in order to get a quick calendar, then this is the extension for you!" J Cook, developer. With an intro that sells and more importantly, a product that works (judging by its reviews, of course), I had to try it. Because like he said -- I am one of them system-tray-clock-clickers! And now that I have it, I say, "Oh yes you are (the extension for me), you wonderful Firefox add-on, you!" And if there is still some confusion about what's going on, I'm raving about the Date Picker/Calendar extension. Visit the mozilla add-ons page, look for it, and you'll know what I mean. It's so simple and obvious, and I'm kicking myself for not discovering this earlier. It's so useful, I like it.

Documenting the progress of my bruised my chin last year would prove how much of a curious klutz I am. Wanting to know how long a scab clears up and bruises fade. Was hoping that accidents like that do not happen at all but clumsy-me rendered otherwise -- so much for an injury-free 2009! Unfortunately, my chin (again) met a blunt foe (this time, with a table). Fortunately, it's not as horrid as last year's 'cause you can't see it but boy, do I feel it. I must have a hard face, then -- literally. Had a fiesta feast this weekend. Everyone was hustling about so I confined myself to eating the food and not being in anyone's way. I should've at least took shots of the buffet, shame.

Happy. Happy. Happy. This time, it arrived just 8 days with amazon's expedited shipping. And yes, that's it for this year's amazon buys and sending it here. Will build up my GC balance for my darlings' Christmas gifts from now on. Better Than Ezra's Friction, Baby is amazing. I highly recommend it. And I'm off to music bliss...

Last night's dinner... I still think that Yellow Cab pizzas lean toward the greasy side. But they are tasty -- except the one with shrimp... blech! Hopefully, they don't have that shrimp pizza on the menu anymore.

Vienna sausages leave much to be desired but when fried up, some improvement in the texture make them OK to eat - not great, but OK. But I also dollop about half a teaspoon of UFC banana ketchup on it with each bite so... I don't know what these sausages are good for except when you're in a rush to eat. Oh, wait - they're good for tomato sauce for spaghetti! Or is it... hmmm. Anyway, having a hard time looking for a usb cable online (local shops that deliver, of course). The places I know don't sell anything less than 5 meters. See, at that length or longer than that, the extension would have to have a signal booster or accelerator or repeater to sustain proper transfer speed (a.k.a. active usb extension). I figure that I can make do with a usb port hub with a cable that's 3 feet/1 meter long 'cause that's what they have, mostly. But I can't find anything that looks safe to use, sadly. I just have to keep looking.

Laswa lunch today. It's basically boiled vegetables in a semi-clear(?) soup. Liked how this turned out - notice the dotted shine from the flash? The soup was "sappy" 'cause of the okra. This was flavored with salt and dried fish that you don't see but they're there, on the bottom of the bowl.

I started to seriously think about acquiring a back-up Internet connection for when pldt dsl is on the fritz a few months ago . Finally decided to get one this week and it's a prepaid wireless broadband thing that uses a USB dongle (globe tattoo). Since it will only be used during what I would consider (it's subjective!) desperate situations, the cost of its use should be justified in spite the fact that the connection would be so slow compared to dsl. Besides, they shouldn't happen so often anyway. Well, that is what I keep telling myself. But my anticipation for "peace of mind" was quickly shut down when I discovered that it did not receive much network signal from where it is positioned on the machine. For what it's worth, my cellphone's modem caught some signal around that area when I used it and they're on the same network!!! Yes, it was an urgent work situation and dsl was acting up so I hooked up my phone to the computer and used it as a mod...

Here's brunch... Our pldt dsl connection went back to its should-be state just yesterday. It was terribly unstable since the 24th, Thursday and I reported it straight away - okay, not quite. I waited a few hours before phoning customer service thinking that it was one of those hour-long "no traffic for you" situations that we've been having since June. After waiting three hours, I realized that it wasn't. Then, typhoon Ondoy hit. We only suffered service interruptions and street flood that went up to just below the knee, or so I've been told since I did not go out to look. In other cities (Marikina, Pasig, etc.), it was considerably serious with people having to go up to their roofs 'cause of high waters in the streets, waiting for rescue. And cars were being carried off by strong currents. We had the radio on constantly. The rains stopped later in the day on Sunday. Was able to watch the news on Monday when our cable was restored. Oh, the images! PAGASA ...

I mentioned being stuck on a page for a project last time. Turns out, I needed to sleep and to let it "marinate" overnight 'cause looking at it with fresh eyes helped things move along. Very excited about this one. Notice when veins in your head plump up a bit and they hurt? Gives you a localized headache, just above an eye? My particular throbbing vein is on the right side of my forehead -- always has been on that side. Curiously, the left-side vein throbbed yesterday. But then, it went away quickly. Must've been jealous 'cause the other vein has been getting all the action.

I have a project. It is exciting. It started off shaky with bumps and holes along the way. There is a learning curve - though I don't know where I am on my "curve". In fact, I've forgotten how to read a learning curve. Maybe I should look that up later. I just finished the first page draft and now, looking at a blank and margin-ed page two on my screen, I am stuck. I look over the printout of the first page draft and discover that it came out with an extra quarter of an inch space from my intended margins. Hmmm... I already adjusted it once when I made a new front page with 300 ppi because the first one I did was 150 that may not print so well. Should I go back to tweaking the front page again? Nah, I'll keep this one. No point in delaying work on page two... Oh right, I'm stuck.

... whole wheat bread + blueberry jam. 'Twas good even if one toast was slightly burnt. Have to like the finger indentation from when this sandwich was cut, made me think that people do care -- I'm not being sarcastic. Could have raisin-dotted whole wheat bread and blueberry jam a lot and I wouldn't get tired of it.

Hello. Went outside and was welcomed by this sight. Neighbors did some gardening, I assume. I wonder when the garbage truck will come by to pick that mess up. Obviously, it rained before I took this. Was expecting to see a bit of flood out there but I suppose the gutters aren't clogged up even if it has been raining for a couple of weeks already. Well if that mess outside isn't sorted out before the heavy rains start again I would see some flood, surely.

Looking over my amazon GC balance, I'm considering the possibility of purchasing "friction, baby" by BTE before the year ends and yes, have it sent here to the Philippines. It is tempting but the $17.98 international expedited, shipping+handling charge does (and should) hold me back. Nonetheless, I don't have to worry about it not arriving here safe and sound because I know that it will arrive safe and sound -- based on first-hand experience . It's just that I don't think I'd have enough for Christmas this year if I do go ahead with it since I am only "mturking" on the side. Unfortunately, other mturkers on the third-party mturk forum have confirmed the same observations that I've been noticing that there is a growing number of iffy requesters there as of late. Thus, the call for further restraint and having a healthy dose of suspicion come into play. And as a result, there is lesser earnings for amazon gift certificates - in my case. On the...

It's a few minutes past 7pm now. - Watched basketball on TV -- my team lost. - Ate a burger from jollibee, a "jolly yum?" but I may have eaten it too fast 'cause my head hurts and my gut feels uncomfortably full. - We ran out of decaf and the corner store doesn't have it in stock - and I want a hot cup of it now. - Weather's cool which is nice. That's all.

No more Deezer for the world, I suppose, and it makes me wish I were in France 'cause it seems to only work for users there now. Namechecking the music-streaming site over several months on this blog, I think it has finally succumbed to labels and lawyers which bullied it into observing their imposed territory limitations that snub every other country on the planet. Such a shame. I will miss using its wonderful, classy interface. It is a fact that most music that I've listened to on Deezer eventually led to proper purchases of digital downloads and CDs. These are music that I would not have discovered and enjoyed and wanted to buy if not for Deezer. For what it's worth, it was wonderful having a beautiful on-demand music streaming site for anyone, anywhere in the world - even if it's just a short while. But I hope that in the future, I'd be talking about "deezer resurrected" or something like it after this eulogy of sorts. Sayang talaga .

Sick but will soldier on 'cause it's not too bad, really. Very happy that I don't share toilets with a room-full of people -- a WAH perk, obviously. There's not a lot of "work from home perks" to speak of but this one is arguably the best part about it. Nothing much I can do but to let it run its course, unfortunately. And if I could just keep my head still, it should stop spinning.

... and dinuguan were served tonight. They're leftovers from last night's dinner party somewhere (out there). Yummy Pinoy fare. These taste better reheated the day after and the day after that. Notice the plastic serving spoons? They give off a carinderia vibe, I think. The days are hot and the nights are cool. It's what I've noticed for a couple of days now which is encouraging. Leaves a little less to complain about, weather-wise. Makes it easier to work without fussing too much about sweating hands and wiping sweat off the face... at least during the night. Work-wise, it's been OK. Work on sites is ongoing and I'm faring well on that front. Earned a small amount for a short transcription assignment last week. A few published articles are earning royalties by the penny and at this rate, I'd reach payout from it in, hmmm... a year or so? HAHA! Honestly, I've written there for the sake of writing and not for the money -- shouldn't even have conside...

Do not care to complain about the harsh, hot, mucky weather we've been having. But I am concerned about our machines overheating because of it - particularly, the modem and router. They've been on for more than 48 hours already and any other time, it would've been just fine but this humid air is worrying. Having the air conditioner on for a little while provided a short relief. I'd keep in on too except that it got too cold for comfort - my comfort, that is. Found myself clenching my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering. Will turn it down to "low cool" next time then. And wait... I think it's raining now. Well, thanks for that.

Apologies... no photos. Had ribs and California rolls for lunch. Very nice. Ate the ribs with my fingers - as should be - but had to use a tissue to pick one up. I know... lame. It was a necessity, unfortunately, 'cause I had to get up and use my rollator afterwards. And I can't very well grab the handles with sticky, smelly fingers, can I? Nope. I can't and I won't. I'm quite skillful with a fork and spoon, all to keep from having to use my fingers to eat. I can peel shrimps, open a crab up and get its meat, de-bone milkfish ( bangus ), what else? Can't think of anything else. That's it then. Have a good week!

I have over an hour of BTE music in my library (too short but there'll be more, oh yes, there'll be more), I am quite content - to date. With Better Than Ezra playing and my headset on, I sing along and it's fun... "sincerely, me", "good", "cars crash" (tricky learning the words to this one), to name a few. Truth be told, I must sound terrible but I don't care because I have the headset on. I think I should spare people here from hearing me wail away and shut the door too but I don't. They'll suffer me a little longer, they're not complaining (yet). Then the music stops. "Awww..."

This is going to be a good, happy entry. And find news about our crippled Internet connection from the day before yesterday, below. So to keep this short and sweet, circumstances of this order were: Seller - Amazon (dotcom, obviously -- the country isn't included in the international "marketplace payments by amazon" so we can't order from other sellers on the site. Hopefully, the Philippines would be on that list soon.) Item - one music CD ("Closer" by Better Than Ezra, as you can see. It's enhanced too - with extras, nice.) Shipping - international expedited (shipping and handling is $17.98). I chose it even if the standard route just became available 'cause I did not want to wait very long and be anxious if it will even arrive and when. Reference: horror stories of pinoys who've waited months for deliveries. It's a potential "I told you so" so I didn't risk standard shipping. Delivery Time - shipped on July 31st and arrived...

If there was fried rice instead of boiled rice on this plate, could I call it a fry-up? A pinoy fry-up? It would be longsilog in Tagalog if I had fried rice, definitely.

Woke up to lovely news -- my goodies are here! Of course, thanks to the gracious person who came back from his holiday and brought these with him. Bought "the diary..." (obviously, a used book) and keane's UTIS from amazon with my mturk earnings. But H&F, I'm not sure where it's from (no, I did not buy it but seeing it was a happy surprise indeed!) because I was expecting another record that I did buy. Short story about it is that the should-be cd broke and that ate would replace it. Apparently, ate bought the wrong record. Quite funny that I'm not upset about the mistake, really. Was planning to get H&F soon anyway so it's all good. So happy. [couldn't stop smiling, oh dear]

Nip in the bud Must've nipped too much So for two to three weeks Just left, if you please Since right is plainly marred! -- my skin

UAAP basketball is on and my team is falling behind. Not good. Second half is about to start. Nervous time. Have a good Sunday. [update 7:30pm: We won! Hurrah!]

You'd think that it's a slow day when you're looking for just the right font for your files -- I'd disagree. It's refreshing, in my case, since I've no strict format to follow when it comes to my files. And it's nice to have good-looking text when you have to work on them everyday especially if they are character-sensitive text that are not at all literary in nature. It's like wanting and having just the right pen for longhand on a journal so you can write better. Choices are few 'cause not all fonts (that I like) show a difference between l, I and 1. Obviously, this blog's font does the job but it looks too crowded if I use it on a worksheet. I used Minion Pro but got tired of it. Before that was Courier something that did not work at all. Sylfaen should work but spaces between characters aren't consistent. Besides, someone playfully teased me about using Sylfaen a lot years before. Back then, I didn't really think that anyone would noti...

I assume it's the 3rd version... it has a new look. Doesn't look as good as the old deezer, in my opinion, but it's working fine now so I'll shut up about it - except that I have to log in every time now which is kind of a slight turn off. Couldn't learn much about the new deezer from neither its blog nor forum 'cause they're in French (edit: the English thread is lacking, to say the least)... most English-speaking users must've jumped ship when it had problems before. Come back, come back!

Is it time to get a spare Internet provider - for when pldt dsl acts up? I don't get upset when it does (act up) anymore 'cause it seems to happen more frequently nowadays -- 15 minutes to 30 minutes here or 45 minutes there, once or twice a day or once a week. I think I'm getting used to their recent unpleasant service. That's not acceptable, is it? Now, they're selling thousands of their dsl modems on TV too. That's sure to negatively affect it further, I assume. A friend told me that when Globe started an all-night something for just 20 pesos, her line started to get crappy at night. I am on Globe prepaid but have never used any of their promos 'cause I'm (admittedly) strait-laced about how I use my phone, so I haven't really noticed it. But I do take her word for it. It is strange that her story pops into my head when I think about pldt dsl now. It's just an issue that comes up when working from home and all. It's just a thought. Anyway, ...

the story starts: was wanting more of better than ezra. had more songs from them on deezer before but deleted "hollow" from the playlist when the site was mucked up 'cause i mal-clicked during that crazy time. i couldn't get it back after that. after listening to what i had of bte tonight, i wanted "hollow" (or just something else). was window-shopping for old bte music to get my ezralite fix when i saw a nice surprise -- they have a new official website and they're giving away (as of tonight, still are) the first track off their new record for free. well, the fact that they have new music after four(?) years was enough of a nice surprise but getting a new free song from them was even better. the song is called "absolutely still". finally, i'm getting my fix of new bte and "absolutely still" should tide me over until i get what it means and learn the lyrics - which is quite wishful since i still couldn't be bothered to learn a...

I put my glasses down to brush my teeth and wash my face. When I pick them up, I see red ants crawling along the frame. Apparently, I have sweet specs. Just shopped on amazon last month. Sent presents to my darlings who had their birthdays then. Bought an early present for myself too so I got to use their free-super-saver shipping on those purchases. I read rumors that amazon may pull the free shipping out... hopefully, it's all nonesense. I'm taking it slow on mturk now since I think that I won't be buying anything on amazon until Christmas - gifts for my darlings and what-not (maybe something for myself too). Quite excited to get what I've bought for moi next month though - that's when someone comes home from their holiday in the US. Been reading/lurking the mturk forum here nowadays. Such a good resource. I like that you see other turkers weed out bad/iffy requesters from the good ones, share experiences, etc.

I spy with my little eye... (will get back to this later) Here's one of those brownies unlimited boxes that I talked about a while ago. This six-brownie pack costs 62 pesos now. I think they became popular 'cause their prices dropped (I remember the same number of brownies at a little less than 100 pesos years ago) or it could be the other way around in that they became a hit so they lowered prices - I don't really know. For some reason, I think the quality dropped as well. A piece from this box was flaky, particularly, the one topped with mini marshmallows. They're still a treat in this house, though. OK, back to "I spy". I spy with my little eye something that starts with an "s" in our bathroom... that doesn't sound right. Alright, there was a spider in the bath today. It was a big brown spider. I left it alone 'cause then, it would leave me alone and it did. I got through my bath (with a lot of hushed cussing and one eye on the spider) and...

I think it's called sarsiyado but I'm not sure about that. This was left-over fried fish from last night and it was recycled for lunch today. Saute a shallot and tomatoes, add sweet and sour dip from a bottle, and you've made a sauce. I'm still confused about which is left and which is right. It surprises me that I get them wrong sometimes. Take today, for instance. Was trying to work with the number keys on the main board (not the ten key, obviously) and I kept saying "right five" in my head. What I really meant was to use my left index finger to press 5 so the correct thought should've been "left five". Still, I was moving my left finger even when I thought "right". That's plain cuckoo right there. But admitting it is the first step...

Good title for a song/band, eh? OK, maybe not. We've no light in our bathroom. The bulb died out and nobody has replaced it. Obviously, I've nothing interesting to say. Intended to post food photos tonight but I forgot all about it. It would've been nice too 'cause we had quite a pinoy spread earlier - barbecue, dinuguan , puto , sprouts. The dinuguan left much to be desired but the pork barbecue was yummy. Answered a lovely wake-up call this morning from my darlings. I am feeling a bit sleep-deprived at the moment but I'll get over it. I should have a nice, deep sleep tonight too. I do miss them very much.

Having dinner at half past five earlier wasn't a good idea. I did know then that this is going to happen eight hours later (it's past 1am now) -- I am hungry. Changing to a simple, silver and black desktop background is revitalizing. Had a flower on before and I grew sick of it and its bright colors. Silver is the theme of this machine for now. Thought of putting in the time and date on the desktop too but quickly decided against it. Did that a while back until I saw how it used up a good percentage of ram. Besides, what's the point of having them when I've windows up that cover most of the screen all the time anyway? Exactly.

Haven't been tasting food right. Something's wrong, I think. It has been going on for two days now. Don't remember doing anything different before then. But I did nurse a one-day cold that was probably 'cause of dust that day (tidied up the desk here the day before yesterday). I do taste food (and drink) but flavors would peter out quickly - no "savoring" has been achieved, so to speak. Curious.

It was delivered this morning. Lovely. 'Twas only a nine-day wait from hmv (uk). I love this album. So happy.

I've come to the conclusion that at some point, a pldt dsl subscriber will have to change their dns settings (tcp/ip) for their connection to work. Two times now, I've had to set preferred and alternate dns addresses to load websites properly. The first time was last year on our old computer. And again, this year, on this machine -- just last night, to be specific. I'm not an expert - far from it - but I do well in some areas when it comes to troubleshooting. As long as I don't delete anything or mess with settings that I've no idea about, it should be fine. And since this is a windows machine, restarting the pc is the norm when troubleshooting too. Well, I went through a common-sense checklist of why the pages wouldn't load right. Symptoms: Some pages would load only after repeated "refreshes", some wouldn't load images, and "page load error" on most of them. Usual suspects: 1 - Malware . Scanned machine (on-demand) and everything looked...

I couldn't be more satisfied with my current state of WAHJs, by far. Have been for some months now. I feel very productive. I am learning a lot and it is very satisfying. This year has been (and still is) a good time for me, working from home. Owning up: Freelance writing and transcription have fallen by the wayside. But I've not abandoned them. They are my idling wah "gigs" and nothing more, at this time. I've known for a while now that I cannot write on demand and I already explained why here . Transcription assignments from my affiliate have been so few and very far in between AND I like it that way. Sidetracking: It feels nice to write about something good - it's not easy but it feels OK. Words did not come pouring out and I kept editing myself. Without a shadow of a doubt, diatribes are easier - they may be boring to read but they are easier to write.

Looked over my posts about transcribing and saw that I was all over the place when I talked about setting my preferences for express scribe hotkeys (function keys). Thought that I'd break them down clearly now 'cause the current settings work best for me, so far. My current Express Scribe (free from NCH Software ) is v 4.23. To customize the function keys, go to settings-->pedal and hot keys. My most-used (or more appropriately, only-used) keys are: F4 Stop F5 Copy Time (Made adding timestamps a non-issue - just press F5 and then, Ctrl-V [paste on MS Word] without leaving the document window. Easy, breezy.) F6 Step Back 5s (five seconds, my most-used hotkey) F9 Play Functions of express scribe hotkeys F4 and F9 are, I think, default. I changed what F5 and F6 do, and I mentioned why here and here . There are no set functions for F7 and F8 (or maybe I intentionally removed them) so pressing either will just stop the playback. All these are on the top-center of the keyboar...

This is going to be about food. I may have had bad dinuguan (pinoy dish that's cooked with blood) earlier. My gut feels funny. Well, it wasn't spoiled or else I wouldn't have eaten it and no one else's gut is rumbling in this house. It may have been not-so-good for me - and only me. Who thought calamares and vinegar went well together? They do, apparently. Had a taste of sweet, soft, wonderful, fried calamares with a vinegar and chopped chili pepper dip. It was so good! Had it the day before yesterday and that one mouthful made my mouth water. Talking about it - my mouth is watering right now. It was yummy.

... the dust. One of my writing affiliates announced that their payment program will be suspended until things on their side pick up (obviously, they meant the economy). I don't know, hopefully they'll recover and this will truly be temporary. But right now, I'm feeling that it's the end (theirs, that is). Edit, 16th June: Just learned that they won't be paying writers who didn't reach the minimum payout this period. I'm sad 'cause that includes me. At the moment, I think that I'll let them have my work (that's pending payment) for free - glass half full and all that. I'll check back on them from time to time. They should carry over outstanding balances for when they start their payment program again -- or should I say, IF it's reimplemented.

My work diary is down to six leaves. It is time to get a new one. This is going to be "one of those posts" which an average person would think of as silly and inconsequential. So, look away (if you're average -- normal, in other words). Asking someone to buy me something that isn't very specific unlike medicine or a pen ('cause I always say what brand I want) is setting myself up for disappointment. More often than not, it happens when I feel strongly about a thing or something completely different 'cause I don't have control over it. I can picture it now: I'm writing down what I want and asking them to scour the stores for something exactly like it. I'm handing them more bills than necessary for "just in case it will cost more than we think". Then 30 minutes later, they'll come back with nothing.

There's something about laying groundwork that's calming. In my case, the prep is typing codes for one of my new wahjs so that the next steps would be easier and quicker. I don't move my head at all and just stare at what I'm copying from. Isn't touch-typing the best? New Java update came in, 6-14, I think it is. It's one of the things that I've auto-update-enabled on this machine. About time too 'cause I wanted to get rid of the old version that used too much space. FYI, it is OK to remove old Java versions and it's actually recommended.

Have two new house shorts and they're boy shorts too. For reasons that I don't care to know about they have mesh and garter on the inside. With the thigh garters, they were a bother to put on 'cause it made them tight - don't know how boys think that that's comfy. And the mesh made my bum sweat -- sorry, but it did. Sure enough, I took a pair of scissors not long after, snipped away the mesh and garter and now they're perfectly comfortable. Goes to show that we ladies can wear boy shorts too - sans the mesh.

After I nitpicked at the music video for "talk you down" by the script a couple of weeks ago here and asked, "Why can't they just play?" or something to that effect, they released the video for their last single "before the worst" (just saw it last night) and they did just that - the band just played. I'm not implying that it had something to do with it, obviously, but some (or many) people may have reacted the same way and the band listened. Well, I'd like to think so. Albeit the inclusion of (what I think has become) the signature "danny walking around" bit, it was close to something that I wanted to see. It would've been better if it were them playing live but it was close. And I am happy with this one cos I really like "before the worst" (they did give it away for free last year - one of the best marketing decisions ever cos it is a really good song and hearing it made me a fan) and I am relieved that they didn'...

... and will see if it works. But it's not technically a pill cos it's a capsule. And it is a herbal supplement with valerian root and melatonin - well, that should explain itself. Thirty minutes in and counting, still wide awake. Hmm. Maybe it takes a while to kick in. Wait... I may be feeling something. Tiredness? Could be normal and not at all supplement-induced. In any case, I'm hoping for a good night's rest tonight like last Sunday. On a different note, I've something worth mentioning news-wise. Universities in Manila have pushed back the start of classes cos of the A-H1N1 virus (I don't even know how to write that down). My alma mater reported four cases of it as of yesterday.

This should've been "write when ready" but that's too... lesson-y. And this isn't a tutorial - not at all. I know that my web-writing wahj fell by the wayside cos I can only write when I'm ready. Blogged before about being useless at it when uninspired so I guess a better way of putting it in words is with - I will write when I'm ready. Otherwise, writing is a tedious and forced bore. Take today for instance, wrote two stellar pieces on music and computers. They're two totally different topics but words came out effortlessly and well. Pretty proud of them too. I'd share them but I just sold them so... they're not mine anymore. But they are published under one of my pseudonyms (yes, I've more than one) so they are not totally lost to me. That's a tricky thing about writing web content. The line between knowing what's mine and what's not has been blurred on the Internet. Still, I credit a writing wahj for providing me with the mon...

Closing the books for the third first quarter is starting to become a chore. When I'm on it, it appears that I've more to do than what I thought when I started. So close and yet so far. Maybe if I get better tools, it wouldn't be too tasking. And I'm thinking along the lines of a refill for my pilot g-tec. I know, it's neither fancy nor interesting but if it would help make this go on better and quicker... hey, to each their own. I think that of all the months, March is particularly tricky. I don't know why, to be honest. It could be that it's when most prepayments start - like for insurance and such. Yes, I should get a refill for my g-tech g-tec... a C3, no, C4. Yes, C4.

Noticed that I've been turning my eyes to see the forex board/matrix more often - I did put it on one of my sites, on one corner, making it inconspicuous. I open that site everyday because it has a huge calendar but that's beside the point... Been particularly looking at the GBP/USD. Slowly but surely, the pound sterling is getting stronger. I swear that everyday it seems that the cost of buying a dollar goes down a penny. I even saw it go down two pence, once. I may have strong feelings about it... just do.

Sometimes I forget about time zones when I'm on mturk. Been working on hits and noticing that the dashboard updates on the same date as yesterday. It's still today - same as when I left last night. Hazy blue. Did not sleep well. I don't need to say why - been saying why too much already. Weather's not helping, it's dark and rainy. Any other time, I would've been liking this. But not today.

Brunch was pork stewed in tomato sauce ( afritada ). Slept in until 3pm yesterday, Sunday. It was dark. It was cold. It rained the whole day. It made up for, me, not sleeping so well the past weeks month or so. Yesterday morning, I was not bothered at all - no one came in, no one messed about. I was let alone and that was what I needed.

Put off updating to Firefox's 3.0.10 version cos I didn't see any need to (and there are lots of rants about it on the FF board too). Tonight, I hesitantly did it when FF crashed on me - three times tonight - three times when I went to paypal. Now I think that I didn't really need to do it and it was the AVG upgrade that I just bought and installed that was behind the crashes. Specifically, its "safe search" add-on/extension. That "safe search" feature of AVG's looked promising but it's short-lived cos I couldn't work with it - had to disable it. It seemed to raise an app compatibility issue with firefox when I go to paypal. Well, I've just disabled it and FF isn't crashing now. This browser has been good and I hate seeing it with bugs like this. Hopefully, nothing else comes up now that I have v3.0.10 since there's no going back. Fingers crossed.

I've nick drake's "pink moon" album on a loop and it's been playing since early this evening. Did I mention that deezer has been working well? Well it is and times like these when I find good records accessible, make deezer wonderful. Anyway, this album CD is on my wish list. I think it's great.

Been in low spirits this past week - wasn't really up to blogging until yesterday. And still that post was obviously cheerless, to say the least. In an effort to work around this gloom, I'm going to impose some presumptuous music musings today so I apologize in advance. But trying hard to sound like I know a bit about something that I hardly have an idea about -- is going to be fun. Added the pet shop boys' "rent" to my deezer playlist two weeks ago. Hearing it definitely puts a smile on my face. Who cannot like this line, "I love you, you pay my rent"?!? Loving it. I could do away with the non-sung (?) lines though cos they're too obvious, maybe put there just to fill up the melody with lyrics. I think the non-sung (hey, it's not literally "unsung" so leave the parody alone obviously) lines made it dated (psb's "rent" is from the 80's). Just a shame cos it would've been timeless if it weren't for those parts...

I used to like working after midnight because it used to be nice and cold. But this bad weather is just putting me out cos it's now 2AM and I'm dripping with sweat. I've a few things to finish then I'm off to bed. I know that I may not fall asleep until maybe 4am so I'm trying to tire myself out. It didn't work last night though, I fell asleep just as light was coming up my windows and I heard the pandesal man honking his muffled horn. I could be thinking too much these days -- finding my proper personal machine, how not to sound like a selfish prick when I do get one and refuse those who try to use it. Lots of scenarios running in my head which is always never good, in my case. I had a brilliant idea of moving this computer out of my room a few days ago. Even if it would've put me in a very difficult situation because it'd far from my work area, I wanted so much to be this dismissive boor who didn't want people coming in her room that she'd wak...

Stuffy - Stuffy weather. Weather professionals (?) announced that the summer season officially ended and the rainy season's here. Apart from the five-minute shower tonight, we've had no rain since I last blogged about it raining here (I think so but I'm not sure. Makes sense? Hopefully). It is, again, sticky and humid. Stuffed - I'm stuffed. I had three big meals, all consumed within six hours. Brunch was roasted chicken. Merienda was a big bowl of ice cream and cheese bread (I wasn't really hungry then but I still pigged out). Dinner was grilled milkfish with tomatoes and onions. Couldn't find any more "stuff" to talk about so, moving on... Just sent off tax reports tonight. I'm wondering where I can put the rest of the documents that I'm finished with - they're just laying here, piled on a chair. Planning on rearranging some stuff to make room for more stuff (hey, stuff! ) but it's too hot to move or do anything really. I guess it...

A play on "brekky", this is what I had for "brucky" (OK, brunch) today. If I could eat breakfast for dinner, I would - but not everyday. My glass of cranberry juice on the rocks [smiles] is sweating on my desk and its tissue coaster isn't doing the job of absorbing the water very well. So I'm going to make this quick -- Last night, our neighbor's cat made such a ruckus for a good half an hour. That kitty must've been in heat - or was in labor - to make such annoying noises. It was so noisy!

Been clocking more ten-key time than normal on the keyboard today so it's time for a breather. I've still got over 200 codes to enter - and it's just groundwork - but it's worth it because after this, all I have to do is copy/paste from there (after I double-check that everything's keyed in all right, that is). I think I'm not as good on the ten key as I am on the qwerty board. Coming from someone who also does accounting, that's embarrassing. Well, I can only improve on it from here so it's fine. Had goto (rice congee) tonight. Unfortunately, it leaves an aftertaste that's salty and oily. Haven't brushed my teeth yet so it's still there. Ate a banana and still finishing off a cup of tea to get rid of it - no success. OK then, break's over. Back to multiple open windows and the ten key.

It's a fine Saturday afternoon. No rains but it's nice and cool - quite appropriate for relaxing. Snacking on a chocolate-filled waffle now. The filling has set because it's been in the fridge overnight. The bite in the middle is OK cos it's less messy than if it was warm. I feel silly eating it with a fork though cos it is shaped like a corndog and I could easily eat it with my hand. But I am on the computer and so... yeah. What better music to relax to than with Better Than Ezra's Before The Robots record that I made a playlist of (and didn't delete) before deezer went over their so-called makeover months back. It is a consolation that deezer is still around to provide me a bit of leisure. Putting a playlist together is still iffy cos most songs are grayed out (meaning, not available in my area - such a shame that they implemented this, really. Deezer was perfect before all this fuss.). Glad that I was able to add Jackson Browne's These Days on one of my ...

Tonight's dessert was a melted chocolate mousse from KFC and a cup of decaf. I liked it. I may have eaten a little too much because my throat's itchy from the "sweet". It's been raining for two days. There's a typhoon and where we are, we're experiencing a Signal No.1 alert. The rest of the country, especially up north, are gearing up for very bad weather. And so, the rainy season begins... I can't wait for when I do not have to share a computer anymore. It's about time that I get my own machine. I easily get upset, you see. I will be more efficient (and relaxed) if I had most things on "auto" and where everything is customized to what I use everyday. It would be a relief not to be bothered with on-demand anti-malware scans, checking to see if any add-ons were installed, if settings were messed up, and all that stuff. Besides, most of what I've been dealing with these past few years have had to do with "professional-me" and ...

Finally, all-natural cranberry juice. I liked the color and it tasted oh-so-good! My tummy's rumbling a bit. Could it be because of this glass of natural CJ that I had this afternoon? No one seems to be having the same stomach-rumblings so it couldn't have been our dinner which was rellenong bangus , by the way, that was store-bought last night. Someone brought home some spicy Thai noodles. I already had dinner when they arrived but there's definitely room for it tomorrow if there's still some left by then. Maybe I should drink half a glass in stead of a whole glass of this cranberry juice tomorrow. This rumbling in my gut feels strange. The CD that I bought from Amazon arrived last week. So excited to get my hands on it. The book should have arrived by now too. It probably has but no one's bothering to tell me about it. Oh well.

Tucking in to this dry cake was not very pleasant. It looked fine but it was dry. The chocolate layer was tough. Not a good dessert, unfortunately. The cake wasn't from any store (or so I've been told) so I have no one to name guilty for this dry, dense course. A can of Coke helped it go down easy, though. Putting my mturk earnings into fine use last week, I placed orders for another book and a CD on Amazon. Apparently, the production of this particular CD has been discontinued so I was more than eager to place an order with a merchant who had it at a very good price. I can't wait to get these things which, I think, will be by the end of August when someone comes home from their holiday in America. My nieces' birthdays are coming up too. I find it difficult to shop for children. I've only NEVER given presents to other kids. If I did, it was just shelling out my share for a big present with my friends - I didn't take part in deciding what to buy with it. I guess ...

A weatherman said that the weather we're having is not at all normal. After complaining about the scorching heat a week ago (I think), we immediately started to get these insanely strong showers and cool temp. Like last night, I heard thunders that were too close to one another. It was a curious and scary thing to hear... Well, more curious than scary really. News reported that we were not having any storms or typhoons. They said that what we're experiencing is an odd low-pressure thing - probably due to climate change. Yes, it is quite strange...

Yes, I'm angry. Last night, our Internet connection (PLDT DSL) went out for over 30 minutes. Today, it happened again! Dammit! I should have seen this coming. Last month, it happened for the first time. There are three indicator lights on the modem and the middle, red light normally blinks quickly to mean that there's a good connection. Last month, that red light did not blink at all. Of course, I assumed that it was just us so I tried repairing the connection, checked the filter on our extension, took the cable out of the router and directly plugged it in to the PC, restarted everything -- nothing worked. The red light did not blink at all. I was so upset because I had something important due that I just shut if off and asked everyone I knew who use PLDT DSL if they had Internet connection. Unfortunately, no one was home to check theirs out. After an hour or so, it came back. FYI, I did call PLDT and waited to talk to a human being but the connection came back up before someon...

The PS2 optical mouse I ordered last Friday (and paid for this Monday) arrived today. Now, I don't have to worry about the old mouse breaking down on me. The old mouse still works but once in a while it acts up. It is now safely tucked away - a back-up, if you may. OK, the online computer shop that I ordered from is OpenPinoy . And they used the courier, LBC and not JRS like I said before. This Cruiser mouse was very cheap (and it was on sale). It's a bit uneven, wobbles on the table but it's manageable. May take a bit of getting used to but it's fine. What's great is that there is a 12-month warranty on this so I've nothing to be bothered about. So, hurrah! It rained again earlier. It is quite nice and cool now. The weather's been tricky lately. Is it rainy season na ?

Woke up to a fire truck's siren this morning. Turned out, there was a fire four houses down the street from us. It wasn't a big fire (thank goodness). They said some old, stacked wood at the back of the house caught fire. Inhaled a bit of smoke, though, but it wasn't overpowering - just tickled the back of my throat, that's all. And just like that, it rained a couple of hours later. It was a welcome shower (with a bit of thunder too) and it is quite cool right now. I am savoring this weather - ahhh... On a bad note, there's no water. I guess they shut it off just before noon, probably to do some cleaning. Hope it comes back up soon. Phoned the online computer store Saturday. When I ordered last Friday (see previous post), I expected a call about the shipping cost and if my order was in stock (as said on their step-by-step ordering guide). When I didn't get one by five o'clock, Saturday, I called them up. Apparently, they were out of what I originally ordered...

Our desktop's wired optical mouse is acting up. I am mouse-less right now and it's been interesting. A lot of tab-pressing and shift-tabs going on. Just have to keep my eyes on where I'm tabbing to though. It is workable but of course, I can't work as fast. We did get a lot out of that mouse but I guess its time has come (or is very near). I think we've had that for what, maybe four years now? It was free too so we did get A WHOLE LOT out of it. Back when this ISP provider was advertising and getting people to sign up for their wireless service, they gave optical mice away. They were basic wired Microsoft P2 mice and they've customized it, painted over the body with their brand name. I just sent someone off to the store to get a new optical mouse and I'm waiting for them to send me a text message on what they find. I also had them bring the (nearly) busted mouse too. So I am just waiting and am a mouse less. :) Update: 9pm Turns out, computer accessories are...

The temp's at 35 degrees right now. It's a scorcher. It's muggy. It's hard to breathe, really. I want to turn off the power supply for the modem and router right now, actually. I don't want the hardware to overheat. I want to but I can't because someone's online on another machine, playing a game. Had a bottle of cold water beside me. Had to put it back in the fridge because it became lukewarm pretty quickly. When will this heat break?!? My sticky notes are starting to fall off. Maybe the glue's melting? Haha.

Cranberry juice with ice is a proper muggy, humid day drink. This was so good that I forgave the fact that it's sweetened. Notice the frost on the side of the glass? So refreshing. Last week, I anticipated the 10th (that was two days ago) because I had to send something by a certain time. I got ready for it - double-checked data, fixed the file's title. In my head, I told myself not to forget to send this file on the 10th before 7pm. So on the day , I was on the computer for about an hour and in my head, I reminded myself to send the file before 7pm. At that moment, I looked at the clock and saw that it was a quarter before 7pm! I did send the file on time but that was a close one. I was so sure that I wouldn't forget but I almost did. Short of having important schedules on my mobile and have it ring an alarm for each of them, I've always been schedule-aware (for the most part). I do prefer to put sticky notes up but the computer monitor can't hold any more notes. T...

Stepped out of the bath and was bitten by ants - twice. We have red ants running up and down a door pane in neat lines. Rested my elbow on it for a second (before I saw the ants) and yes, they got me. They're itchy bites too. Ugh. Had a glass of newly-bought cranberry juice. I was expecting the tart, sour, earthy taste but when I took a sip, it was sweet. Ugh. Turned out we bought the Splenda-sweetened cranberry juice. Ugh. It's fine - would've preferred it with ice (ice and cranberry juice are best buds) but our freezer is full so we can't make ice cubes. Suffering humidity once again. Snuck in an hour of A/C time at noon... so nice.